Aug 11 update

America’s consumer prices rose by 3.2% in the year to July, a slight increase from 3% in June. Core prices—which exclude energy and food—increased by a modest 0.2% month on month in July, the second such increase in a row. The news could deter the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates in September.

President Joe Biden said China’s economic and demographic problems are a “ticking time bomb”. Mr Biden, who was speaking at a fundraiser in Utah, warned that “when bad folks have problems, they do bad things”. China’s growth has slowed recently and its population is ageing rapidly. Earlier, Mr Biden signed an executive order limiting American investment in certain Chinese tech companies that could bolster China’s armed forces.

News Corp, Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate, recorded a 75% drop in annual profit in the year to July. The firm, which owns several newspapers including the Sun and the Wall Street Journal, was hit by lower print and digital-advertising revenues in Australia and Britain. But News Corp said it saw a “remarkable opportunity” to generate new revenues and cut costs through generative AI.

President Joe Biden signed a disaster declaration approving federal aid to Hawaii, where wildfires killed at least 53 people. Flames, fuelled by a distant hurricane’s winds, devastated parts of Maui. Lahaina, a tourist town on the island, was largely destroyed. Thousands were evacuated from their homes, and many fled the smoke by jumping into the ocean.

West African leaders from ECOWAS ordered the deployment of a standby force to “restore constitutional order” in Niger. The regional bloc held a summit on Thursday to discuss the coup in Niger. ECOWAS, however, said that it still hopes for a diplomatic solution. Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, all ECOWAS members ruled by juntas, have openly declared their support for Niger’s military leaders.

America’s Supreme Court temporarily blocked the bankruptcy proceedings of Purdue Pharma, the company behind the opioid painkiller, OxyContin. The arrangement, approved by a lower court in May, would have shielded the drug-maker’s owners, the billionaire Sackler family, from liability in future lawsuits in exchange for a one-time $6bn payment to victims of the opioid epidemic. The Supreme Court will hear the case in December.

Iran released into house arrest five Iranian-American citizens detained in Tehran, the capital. According to media reports, the five prisoners will eventually return to America as part of a larger agreement. In exchange America will allow Iran to access $6bn of frozen assets and release several Iranians from its prisons. The two countries have not had normal diplomatic relations for decades.

Figure of the day: $1.4bn, the amount that cinemas in America made in July, the highest-grossing month since December 2019. Read the full story.

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PHOTO: AP

Britain’s economic balancing act

Since the first quarter of 2022, Britain’s economy has oscillated between contraction and growth—of around 0.1% of GDP either way. Forecasters predict much the same for the second half of this year. Official GDP figures for the second quarter of 2023, released on Friday, will probably fit the pattern, too.

In a way, that would be good news. Inflation is still too high and requires some cooling of the economy. The June figures showed that core inflation—which strips out volatile prices such as energy—stuck at an uncomfortable 6.4% year on year (down from 6.5% in May). Policymakers would like to achieve lower inflation while avoiding a deep recession, and have so far succeeded.

Nonetheless, the risk remains that the economy might weaken too much. A recent survey of recruitment agencies found a drop in permanent hires; another one among purchasing managers put the economy close to stagnation. The balancing-act continues.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Reckoning with violence in Haryana

Residents of Nuh, a town in the Indian state of Haryana, are coming to terms with the damage of recent unrest. Deadly violence erupted there during a religious procession in late July. In the days that followed, state authorities, controlled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which also rules at the national level, demolished houses and businesses in the area, ostensibly for violating building codes. On Monday Haryana’s high court halted the demolitions. It suggested they were a form of “ethnic cleansing” directed almost exclusively against Muslim residents.

Over 1,200 structures had already been bulldozed. Such incidents will probably proliferate in India ahead of next year’s election. An uptick in the number of political rallies and religious processions raises the risk of violence. That, in turn, may tempt local authorities to use demolition drives to intimidate and punish Muslims. The events in Nuh could be a sign of things to come.

PHOTO: EPA

Russia enters a new Moon race

Still engaged in a shameless land grab in Ukraine, the Kremlin has eyes on a more distant frontier, too. On Friday Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, is due to launch its Luna-25 probe from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, around 5,550km (3,450 miles) east of Moscow. The mission aims to achieve Russia’s first lunar landing since 1976.

The probe will head to the Moon’s south pole to search for evidence of water, in the form of ice, which could help sustain a human lunar presence. But Russia faces competition: India’s Chandrayaan-3 probe, which launched in July, is headed to the same region. And Earth-bound geopolitics risks denting Russia’s space ambitions. After the invasion of Ukraine, the European Space Agency ditched its promise to provide Luna-25 with specialist equipment. Meanwhile, Russia is only a junior partner on a planned Moonbase with China. Alas, the challenges facing the Kremlin’s moonshot sound awfully like its problems back on Earth.

PHOTO: ALAMY

Can Spain’s low inflation last?

Spain’s government entered this year touting some of the best economic figures in the euro zone. A bigger-than-average covid contraction led to a later, stronger recovery in GDP compared with its peers’. Even more impressive has been the low accompanying inflation: in June Spain became the first country in the bloc to get the headline figure below an annual rate of 2%. On Friday final figures for July will be released.

They are expected to confirm preliminary data which put headline inflation at 2.3%. More worrying, those figures also suggested core inflation was 6.2% in July, up from 5.9%. The core measure, more closely watched, strips out volatile fresh-food and energy prices. Spain’s headline inflation has been flattered by its lower energy costs: it does not get much energy from Russia and has won a so-called “Iberian exception” from European Union rules linking electricity prices to gas prices. The downward trend in Spanish inflation may be broken.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Saudi Arabia’s new look football league begins

Football’s centre of gravity has long been in England. The country hosts the English Premier League, the world’s richest and most popular football division. And its champion, Manchester City, is the world’s best team. On Friday City will travel to Burnley to begin a new league season.

At around the same time, another league kicks off thousands of kilometres away in Saudi Arabia. Traditionally football fans outside the kingdom have paid little attention to the Saudi Pro League. No longer. Over the summer Saudi clubs, with some generous state backing, have spent more than $480m signing players from Europe. The most eye-catching arrivals include Karim Benzema, a French player crowned the world’s best in 2022, and Riyad Mahrez, an Algerian star from Manchester City. Reports suggest the Saudis have set aside more than $17bn to develop its league. The Saudi effort may not yet rival the EPL, but football fans know better than to write off an underdog.